The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project THEODORE WILKINSON Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: January 11, 1999 Copyright 2001 A ST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Washington DC Yale University% George Washington University U.S. Navy Entered Foreign Service - 1,-1 Caracas .ene/uela - Political Officer 1,-0-1,-1 President Betancourt Am2assador Allen Ste3art Environment 4a2or Oil Stockholm S3eden - Rotation Officer 1,-1-1,-- U.S. relations Social Democrats Consular issue State Department - Bureau of Intelligence and Research 7INR8 1,-- .ietnam Norfolk .irginia - Armed Forces Staff College 1,---1,-8 .ietnam State Department - ACDA 1,-8-1,70 SA4T CCD NPT Brussels Belgium - NATO 1,70-1,71 Arms control issues Force reduction issue 0 MBFR European Conference on Security Cooperation The French Soviets Donald Rumsfeld 4arry Eagle2urger Israel Kissinger Germans Cyprus The Pentagon 1,71-1,7- CSCE 7European Security Conference8 Helsinki Final Act Geneva agreements Environment AWACS Shirley Temple Black Threshold Test Ban State Department - Tunisia Desk Officer 1,7--1,77 4i2ya Bourgui2a Algeria State Department - Morocco Desk Officer 1,77-1,78 Polisario King Hassan Ne3 York Ne3 York - USUN - Political Officer 1,78-1,80 Environment Andre3 Young Don McHenry First Committee Sandinistas Ara2-Israeli relations Soviets Space Disarmament Afghanistan Indian Ocean SA4T Iran Zionism Delegations 1 Ne3 York - 4a3 of the Sea - Deputy Director 1,80-1,81 Sea2ed mining 4a3 of the Sea Treaty State Department - Bureau of Oceans Environment and Science - Acting Director 1,81 Mexico City Mexico - Deputy Political Counselor 1,81-1,81 Environment President 4ope/ Portillo Am2assador John Gavin Relations Salvador Foreign Office Contadora Group Refugees Press CIA Falklands Guatemala Political parties Democracy Tegucigalpa Honduras - Political Counselor 1,81-1,8- Wife Aenia - commercial officer Contras Oliver North Government President Cordova Nicaragua .ice President Bush visit President A/cona Economy Environment State Department - Oceans Environment and Science 1,8--1,8, Nuclear safety Foreign nuclear programs IAEA Richard Kennedy AFSA - President 1,8,-1,,1 Issues Am2assador appointments 2 Felix Block case Congressional funding Secretary of State Baker Shirley Temple WomenBs rights Gulf War April Glaspie Interim Recollections Paul Ne3man Am2assador John Gavin Mexico City Mexico - Chief Political Officer 1,,1-1,,1 NAFTA Torricelli C4a3D Elections Drug Enforcement Agency Drugs Police Relations Rosario Green Chiapas revolt Ramsey Clark CuauhtEmoc Cardenas Brasilia Bra/il - Political Counselor 1,,1-1,,- President Cardoso Economy U.S. interests Relations FTAA Hillary Clinton visit Retirement 1,,- Ecuador-Peru F1,10s) pro2lem INTERVIEW ": Today is the 11th of January, 1999. This is an interview with Theodore Wilkinson, and it's being done on behalf of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and I'm Charles Stuart Kennedy. Do you want to say something* I just want to check and see how this is coming through. 3 WI4KINSON: IBm Theodore S. Wilkinson. ": Ted, could you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family. WI4KINSON: Yes of course. I 3as born in Washington. ": C* WI4KINSON: In Washington DC. My father 3as a career naval officer 3ho died tragically in an automo2ile accident on a ferry at Norfolk in 1,1-. My mother remarried t3o years later. Her second hus2and 3as an Englishman Admiral Henry Moore and 3ent to live in England in the late I10s so I spent a fair amount of my adolescence commuting bet3een the United States and England. I 3ent to boarding school in the U.S. ": Well, I want to go back a bit. ,ou were born when* WI4KINSON: I 3as born in 1,31. ": Were you a good, solid navy brat, moving around a lot* WI4KINSON: 4ess than my older sisters 3ho 3ere born earlier in my fatherBs career in the early I00s. But I did live 3ith family in Honolulu just before World War II. During that time our house in Arlington 3as rented to a group of bachelors including Phil Graham. Many became bright stars. Dean Acheson and Felix Franfurter visited. Katherine Graham 3rites a2out visits that she used to make to Hockley as it 3as called then FitBs no3 kno3n as CThe CedarsD and hosts the National Prayer Breakfasts) and she met her hus2and- ": The editor of The Washington Post. WI4KINSON: Phil Graham eventually became the editor of the Post. Katherine Meyer 3as the o3nerBs daughter and she met Graham at Hockley. They had a romance that involved visiting this house in Arlington 3hich she descri2es in her auto2iography as her vision of CTara.D Then 3e came back from Ha3aii in 1,11. The bachelors moved out and 3e lived there for a 3hile during the 3ar. But Hockley 3as too big a place for my mother to maintain 3ith very little help. My father 3as out in the South Pacific 3here he commanded amphi2ious operations. We moved into the District and lived in Georgeto3n and I 3ent to school here living in Georgeto3n to3ards the end of the 3ar and after. I loved the ram2ling grounds of Hockley 3ith forest smells and the big imposing plantation house Fa2ove Spout Run 3ith a vie3 do3n on Key Bridge) and al3ays felt betrayed by my family for leaving it and eventually selling it. ": Where did you go to school in Washington* 4 WI4KINSON: I 3ent to St. Al2anBs School for five years. Many of my oldest friends are from that time. ": What particularly interested you when you were at St. Alban's* Any particular - WI4KINSON: I think like most boys I 3as interested in sports and liked mathematics and intellectual pro2lems and I liked the school spirit. I like to play tennis sail outdoor things. ": Well, then, back. When your father died, and your mother then remarried later on, and you went to boarding school. Where did you go to boarding school* WI4KINSON: I 3ent a3ay to St. PaulBs School in Ne3 Hampshire. ": And you were there from when to when* WI4KINSON: 1,18 to graduation in 1,50. ": Talk about St. Paul's. How was the atmosphere, and what were your interests at that time* WI4KINSON: St. PaulBs 3as a some3hat different place in the late I10s and early I50s from 3hat it is no3. The basic school curriculum 3as science math and humanities but sports 3ere very important. Today I 3ould judge thereBs more emphasis on the arts and less on sports. Some of my classmates 3ere on a cre3 that eventually became an Olympic cre3 in 1,5- and 3on the gold medal in Mel2ourne. We 3ere trained to be tough outdoors people. I played a lot of ice hockey and ro3ed. But 3e also 3orked very hard and I found that my preparation for college 3as pretty good. College 3as relatively easy after the strict academic atmosphere at that school. There 3asnBt much in the 3ay of diversion. We 3ere allo3ed to have record players only as juniors and seniors. We 3ere not allo3ed to have radios at all and no televisions. There 3ere t3o or three proms a year. We sa3 girls pretty rarely. I didnBt find it a very easy or congenial place but it 3as pro2a2ly a very good place to get a basic education. ": What did you like to read when you were there* WI4KINSON: Well I think a lot of us 3ere sort of captivated by books like The Catcher in the Rye 3hich told of a very different kind of adolescence from ours. We 3ere being disciplined very strictly and here 3as an author 3ho 3as sho3ing Holden Caulfield as a re2el 3hose values 3ere different 3ho 3asnBt co3ed 2y authority and 3e tended to ideali/e the re2els - like James Dean - although 3e accepted the discipline and lived by it. ": What about majors* Did you have anything that you particularly - WI4KINSON: In high school - no really. As I said earlier it 3as the math science and 5 the humanities that 3e 3ere drilled in and 3e 3ere pretty 3ell educated in those su2jects pro2a2ly better even than in most day schools because of the fact that 3e didnBt have much in the 3ay of diversions. ": I had four years at Kent. WI4KINSON: Oh yes so your experience 3as very similar IBm sure. ": It was. What about the outside world as far as international events and all that* Did that intrude much* WI4KINSON: Well it certainly did in my consciousness because my family 3as very close to people 3ho 3ere diplomatic. We 3ere close to people like for instance the Achilles family the Chapin family. Admiral Flater Am2assador) Alan KirkBs author 3ife 4ydia - Roger KirkBs mother - 3as my godmother and they 3ere close family friends. I 3as never pushed but may2e sort of coaxed to3ard the diplomatic field by my family relatives and experience. So international consciousness 3as very present in my family. At home there 3as a lot of talk a2out international events. One of my first recollections at the age of 1 0 3as the som2er silence of the family group listening to radio reports of the German occupation of the Sudetenland in the spring of 1,3,. ": What about your mother being married to a British admiral* Did you go to Britain 2uite often* WI4KINSON: I did. I used to go there in the summers. At first 3e lived in a cavernous official residence 3ith 07 enlisted staff - greenhouses 3 tennis courts etc. - 3hile my stepfather 3as Commander-In-Chief of the CNoreD FBritainBs naval deployment to the East of the Isles) 4ater after his retirement 3e lived in a to3n not far from 4ondon called Watering2ury in the County of Kent and that 3as a very interesting place to live in the immediate post3ar years because there 3as an aristocracy that lived the 3ay it al3ays had.